Austria to 'Super-Speeders': We're Taking Your Car

There are so many things we could do in the US to reduce the tens of thousands of road deaths every year. The odd thing is, we seem to be choosing to do none of them. I think the problem is that a meaningful number of assholes, I mean Americans, truly think they have a right to zip down freeways at 100mph, swerving form one lane to the next with no blinker. We see it every day. As far as I'm concerned, driving like that is akin to a violent crime and should come with a prison sentence.

That’s the norm in Switzerland.<p><i>&gt;Officials said they drew inspiration from neighboring Switzerland, which has been confiscating cars owned by extreme speeders for more than a decade.</i>

The US is pretty permissive about speeding. In many states there are highways on the outskirts of cities where the average speed of cars is 20mph higher than the speed limit. We&#x27;ve abandoned automatic speed cameras because people want to be able to speed. In South Florida you can take your traffic ticket to The Ticket Clinic, lawyers who for $80 guarantee to get the points against your license removed or your money back.<p>We have so many technological fixes for it too. Modern cars can actually read speed limit signs, yet they don&#x27;t have a feature to limit the speed of the vehicle to that limit. Some cars have a feature to limit the speed limit depending on whose car keys are in the car, but the owner has to enable it. Even if sometimes you have to speed for some extraordinary circumstance, the car could limit it to &lt;85mph after 30 seconds (the fastest public road speed limit in the US is 85mph). And to reduce the number of drunk driving incidents, all cars could have a built-in breathalyzer.<p>But we don&#x27;t do these things for the same reason people refused to wear masks during the pandemic: fear of an attack on personal liberty. We care much more about our ability to do terrible things than our responsibility to not do harm. Humans suck. But culturally, some do more than others.

I&#x27;m not sure HN isnthe right place to discuss political issues, but this is a horribly toothless law.<p>&gt; The law applies when a driver within a city is going 60-plus kilometers per hour over the speed limit. Outside the city, the vehicle must be going 70 or more kph (44 mph) over the limit. But at that level, the vehicle is only confiscated for two weeks. For repeat offenders, as well as for those who go 80-plus kph (50 mph) over the speed limit in a city or 90-plus kph (56 mph) outside a city, the vehicle is permanently confiscated and sold.<p>Doing 110 kpm in a 50s zone is willingly putting people&#x27;s life at risk. It&#x27;s beyond reckless driving, and might be considered as a super weak form of attempted murder (and suicide) even. And you get your car taken away for 2 weeks. Unless you&#x27;re doing the Autobahn max Speed in a 50s zone or be a repeat offender for it to actually trigger.. What the hell?<p>Even better, if the racer doesn&#x27;t own the car, there&#x27;s (as they admit themselves) nothing they can do.<p>Why is this so weak? Is there some ethical concern about taking someone&#x27;s car, or is this a political maneuver?

The issue always is, who keeps the proceeds from sale of the forfeited vehicle. If it is the police that issued the ticket, this amounts to a license for police to commit highway robbery.<p>If not a problem now in Austria, it eventually will be.

Austria is basically a money-thieving country. It&#x27;s about money, not about safety.<p>What about dangerously changing lanes, jumping red lights, and tailgating? These actions can be more hazardous than orderly speeding, but there is no such punishment for them.<p>If speeding is such a danger, why even allow car makers to sell vehicles that can drive so fast? Because the money supply from fines will dry out fast; that&#x27;s why.

This sounds stupid and pointless. Just take their licenses and fine them, and if they keep doing it, put them in prison. This is being goofy for media attention. If one guy drives a shitty souped up car and one guy drives an expensive car, it&#x27;s simply arbitrary. Austrians think voters are stupid, or know it from experience.<p>This is a standard waste of time designed to make useless politicians look active.

I would be fully in support of something like &quot;broken glass&quot; roadway policing: speeding, expired&#x2F;invalid plates, lights out, overtinted glass, poor emissions, obstructed windows, etc. You get a warning, then you get a fine. A few offenses and your car and or license is confiscated.